Ant predation towards termite and treehopper baits in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Animals may develop mutualistic associations with other species, whereby prey offer resources or services in exchange for protection from predators. Alternatively, prey may offer resources or services directly to their would-be predators in exchange for their lives. The latter may be the case of hemipterans that engage in mutualistic interactions with ants by offering a honeydew reward. We test the extent to which a honeydew offering vs. partner recognition may play a role as proximate mechanisms deterring ants from predating upon their hemipteran partners. We show that, when presented with a choice between a hemipteran partner and an alternative prey type, mutualist ants were less likely to attack and more likely to remain probing their hemipteran partners. This occurred even in the absence of an immediate sugary reward, suggesting either an evolved or learned partner recognition response. To a similar extent, however, ants were also less likely to attack the alternative prey type when...动物可与其他物种建立互利共生关系：猎物为换取免受捕食者的庇护，可为对方提供资源或服务。或者，猎物也可直接向潜在捕食者提供资源或服务，以换取自身存活的机会。后者的典型案例便是半翅目昆虫（hemipterans）与蚂蚁建立互利共生关系时，会向蚂蚁提供蜜露作为回报。本研究旨在探究：提供蜜露与伙伴识别这两种因素，分别在多大程度上作为近因机制阻止蚂蚁捕食其半翅目共生伙伴。实验结果显示：当共生蚂蚁可在半翅目共生伙伴与其他备选猎物之间做出选择时，它们攻击半翅目伙伴的概率更低，且更倾向于持续触探这些伙伴。即便没有即时的含糖奖励，这一现象依然存在，这表明蚂蚁要么具备进化形成的伙伴识别响应，要么拥有后天习得的此类识别能力。不过，在类似情境下，当面对备选猎物类型时，蚂蚁的攻击概率同样有所降低……